Elevator Music
by princeboy
Summary: "Right, Miku – you have one minute to explain why a human was just delivered to my front doorstep." Just beginning to get used to the absence of his sister in his home, a special delivery replaces Miku's presence, with a knack for screwing things up. /android!gakupo x kaito
1. Part 1

It wasn't unusual that the TV plugged outside the ramen shop would still be turned on after 1AM. Even when the stars had begun to climb through a darkened sky and the birds had gone home, no one leaned out from their windows and screamed at the youngsters for playing video-games with the volume turned to the max. Heibonroji was always awake, and the noise only heightened in amplification at around 9PM, when the smells from restaurants had begun to spurt through the air and people would throng through the alleys. Although not the Japan most people would visualise, there was a large, genuine scrape of it in Heibonroji which made it incredibly homely.

It would be heaven if you were only twelve or thirteen and lived there. Video-games came in cheap – you had to be careful they weren't Chinese rip-offs – and there were plenty of things to keep them satisfied; remote control car races by the sushi store, kickball behind the comic store.

By twenty-six, Kaito should've been sicked of this cramped alley, but he was perfectly content where he was living. Even if his life was possibly the most dullest thing in the world, everything always went swimmingly – something that was rare in most adults. He lived directly above his friend's sushi bar, where they provided him food for free as long as he took a shift or two to compensate and in a small neighbourhood of around two hundred people, Kaito was on good terms with nearly everyone and getting discounts wasn't incredibly hard. The only time where he was expected to actually _put _effort into something was having to wake up as early as 5AM to catch a train to Shibuya in order to arrive to his office on time. Otherwise, life had been an unfurling string of yarn, with no ties or knots to stumble over.

Miku on the other hand, had always been a little ambitious for the age of seventeen. Around the time where she was slowly growing out of her figurines and anime and manga and games, she had up and decided that she wanted to explore the outside world and learn everything about it. Her goals were atrociously high, but somehow, she managed it; living in a big city with big lights and big cars and big advertisements illuminated on tower walls. So after hitching a room at her friend's place, Miku had packed her bags, stowed away monuments of her weeaboo phase into the storage room and left cramped little Heibonroji for big, big Tokyo. In a way, it hurt – Kaito had no one to tease, but it was reassuring that Miku had blossomed into a mature, beautiful teenager.

It had been a full month since Miku had moved out and Kaito had came to realise how much he'd miss his little sister's presence. Without her filling up the entire apartment with her rowdy pop music, Kaito had enough room where his thoughts would be the loudest thing to swirl through his ears.

Glancing fleetingly at the storage closet one more time, Kaito shut the door and headed towards the kitchen, going to prepare his breakfast – or lunch, by the figures on the clock. Halfway through pouring his cornflakes into a bowl, a knock on the door had scared most of his cereal onto the kitchen tiles. Kaito groaned. Begrudgingly, he thumped the box onto the kitchen counter and went to reluctantly answer the door, opening it to two young delivery boys – one with long, blond hair and a column of piercings on his left ear and the other, a shock of pink hair with a black beanie pulled over his eyes.

"Special delivery for Miku Shion?" The blond one asked and without a moment to let Kaito respond, slowly tipped in a life-size box cautiously, laying the box in front of the doorway. "B'careful with it, it's fragile."

Kaito side-stepped to make way of the box and stared at them incredulously, wondering just what in the mother of everything good and holy was going on.

"Miku doesn't li-"

"Mind signing here, dude?" The beanie-clad one asked, thrusting a clipboard at Kaito's chest. Reluctantly, Kaito took it and slowly signed the clipboard before passing it back. The blond beamed whilst the pink-haired one nodded, both thanking Kaito before they abruptly left, loudly shutting the door behind them. Not long after, the sound of metal clanging reverberated through the flat. Kaito supposed one of them had fallen down the stairs, although was too shocked with the box to actually care.

It took an eternity for Kaito to actually go ahead and open the box. The eternity consisted of staring at the box and pressing an ear against the thick cardboard – as if that would inform him of the contents. Eventually, the temptation had grown too strong and Kaito walked right past his phone and obtained a kitchen knife. He slipped the knife in his waistband – a stupid thing to do – and dragged the box to the living room, cautiously kneeled down and retrieved the knife from his pajama pants. He stabbed the box's edge, running it through a whole circuit until the top and the bottom had separated.

Kaito elevated the lid, tossing it to the couch before he was finally able to see what was in the contents of that box.

"...What the hell?"

Inside the box was a realistically-human figure, a man around six feet, purple hair, pale complexion with an indigo suit covering him from neck to ankles, suctioned to his skin.

He took a while to inspect this...thing of a human, scooping up the polysterene balls that cushioned the human and letting it fall from his fingertips. Lightly prodding the skin – which was scarily resemblant to actual human skin, and running a finger down the designs of the outfit, feeling every bump and dip.

He breathed in, stood up and went straight to fetch his phone, unlocking it and pulling up Miku's contact. He pressed the phone right up to his ear, brows furrowed and a strange pulsing in his chest, counting down the seconds until Miku would–

"Hey, good afternoon, Kaito! What's up-"

"Right, Miku – you have one minute to answer why a human was delivered to my front doorstep, addressed to you," Kaito cut off rigidly.

"Wha...?"

"Six feet tall, weird cyber outfit, long purple hair, has some sort of katana boxed next to him as well as what seems to be a manual. Explain."

There was silence.

Miku gasped.

"Oh, oh my gosh!" She exclaimed shrilly, making Kaito pull the phone slightly way from his ear "Riiiight – oh my god... i-it was so long ago..."

"Know what it is?"

"W-when I was sixteen, I got this e-mail from the CEO of an elite company; they specialised in tech-y things and made really amazing products and games. Anyway, t-they saw that I had been using a lot of their products and bought all of their games, so they asked me if I could participate in a project. They asked me to customise my 'dream guy' using some kind of 3D figure or somethin', so I made that him. S-so they paid me two-thousand dollars for it and they said it'd be made and shipped within a year and a half...S-so I guessed it actually worked? I thought it wouldn't, a-and I just did it because I was getting paid – I didn't think it'd _work._"

"Oh, I dunno, Miku, I didn't think it'd work either, seeing as they're an _elite company,_" Kaito suddenly snapped. "And they paid you two-thousand dollars! Because it was a scam! Yeah, absolutely realistic, Miku!"

"I-I'm sorry! I don't know, Kaito! I thought I wouldn't be over with my obsession with stuff like that then...! I'm really, really sorry..."

Kaito groaned. "Well...since you're over it, should I refund it then?"

"Don't!" Miku suddenly spluttered. When there was a moment of silence, she hurriedly added, "I-it's non-refundable..."

Kaito breathed in, trying to keep himself from punching the phone. He loved his sister from the bottom of his heart – but how stupid would she have to be participate on a project in an e-mail sent by an elite company, get paid two thousand dollars and think it wouldn't _work?_

"K-Kaito, I'm really sorry," Miku squeaked. "But, I'm getting a new place in three months, so I can pick him up then... B-but for now, please just activate him and keep him around? I'm sure he won't be that troublesome..."

"Miku, you know I can't possibly take care of him, I have a job-"

"Please," Miku said, sincerely. "It'll mean so much. I'm sure he can manage by himself. He has the internal brain of an adult once he gets...used to the real world. Please, Kaito? I'll make it up to you."

Miku sounded so genuine and sincere. Her voice was scraped slightly with the desperation that Kaito couldn't possibly say no to...

"Fine. Just for you though. Okay?"

He heard Miku giggle in relief.

"Thank you, Kaito."

Kaito smiled softly. "It's okay, but you have to pick him up then."

"Of course." Miku said.

None of them seemed to want to end the call, despite the silence that had begun to fill.

"Oh, Kaito?"

"Mm?"

"Gakupo."

Kaito raised an eyebrow and straightened himself. "What?"

"His name is Gakupo," Miku explained. "Gakupo Kamui. The name I chose out for him."

The line went dead.

* * *

><p><em>off-line.<em>

* * *

><p><em>Located on the back of PRODUCT CAMUI GACKPO's neck, find the USB cord plugged in and connect to laptop. Boot up PRODUCT CAMUI GACKPO program.<em>

Kaito swallowed. Leaning himself over his bed, he groped around for his laptop underneath it, coming back up with a grunt. He set the laptop carefully next to him and glannced over at the robot, raking the hair away from his neck to retrieve the cord – a long, black wire coiled up and lazily taped to the neck. Kaito removed the tape in an easy stroke and uncoiled the wire, plugging it into his laptop. Almost immediately, a bubble popped up on the bottom right corner of his screen.

_Installing INTERNET CO. product CAMUI GACKPO..._

Um.

Again, Kaito glanced at the robot and saw that it was beginning to somewhat glow. Through the outfit, Kaito could see the internal wires lighting up all around his body and face

After a good minute or two, the bubble had disappeared and in replacement, an installation guide had appeared in the middle of his screen. Kaito blinked and slowly placed his cursor by the 'Next' button.

He skimmed past the Terms of Agreement/Use automatically pressing 'OK' and an array of statistics had blossomed; the guide had pulled up full screen and tossed the usual installation theme away, a complicated screen of futuristic statistics and options appearing instead.

Before Kaito could mess around with any of these options, however – another screen similarly styled had popped up.

_ENTER NAME ?_

Kaito hesitantly hovered his fingers over the keys, slowly spelling out his name.

_KAITO__

_AGE ?_

Nice way to remind how old he was getting.

_26__

_MALE OR FEMALE ?_

MALE_

Kaito had begun to form his answers in his head – a grown man of twenty six, activating a robot meant for teenage girls or young adult women. A little degrading, yes, but Kaito had to stick to Miku's promise.

_PLEASE WAIT_

A loading bar had popped up, the blank space filling up with a percentage of how much left was to go.

…96%

...97%

...98%

...99%

100%

_THANK YOU FOR WAITING. ACTIVATE CAMUI GACKPO PRODUCT NOW?_

That was the exact point where Kaito hesitated, thinking over what the future had in store for him. He was getting a walking, talking android as a housemate, his sister's supposed boyfriend. The robot would be in his house for three months and it could go either horribly wrong or absolutely terrific. Even worse, both, because that'd be a terrible combination.

So, taking a deep breath, Kaito clicked on the 'OK' button and walked into the eye of the storm of his long, uneventful life.

* * *

><p><strong>Reviews are cool. So are favouritesfollows. Or the whole package if you're a good, good person.**

**PS: forgot to mention that heibonroji isn't a real place. **

**~chinat0wn**


	2. Part 2

MimoruGK: Thank you!  
><span>Guest<span>: Thank you!  
><span>Acedia Sinner<span>: Aha, thank you very much! And we'll see. ;) (Can't say much about 'platonic' though :))))  
><span>Afiction<span>: Haha, we'll see. Thank you!  
><span>Yumi<span>: Thanks!  
><span>Honeycloud of RiverClan<span>: I think that was implied somewhere in the first chapter, although I should've made it clearer. But yeah, he is. (:  
><span>Guest2<span>: ohmygodsorryheresyourupdatehopeyoulikeit!

* * *

><p>Eyes.<p>

Kaito couldn't decide what would've been more ore terrifying — if he was welcomed with eyes looked nothing like a human or eyes that looked too much like a human's. Given, he would've had to experience the former to decide, although that was completely out of his favour.

Predominantly, now that he was out of his hermitic, inactivated form, the resemblance towards that of an actual human being as a whole was really more terrifying as result; as he moved around, there was no clunking, no whirring, no apparent evidence that this normal human was really just a clump of metal programmed to do such simple human tasks.

"I think... ..Mm, I think this is enough.," Gakupo finally decided, drawing back the curtain to step out of the dressing room. He straightened out his knit jumper, a number of clothes draped over his right hand, one of which belonged to Kaito. Lightly tossing those to him, Gakupo had his left hand free to fiddle around with the hangers, trying to get them in a neat little pile.

"Thanks for lending me your clothes."

"Don't mention it,' Kaito responded, catching the clothes. He briefly looked up at Gamupo and smiled. "You look good," he complimented and joined Gakupo's side. "Nice taste."

"Thank you," Gakupo answered with a genuine grin to match, letting Kaito lead the way towards the counter

"Good afternoon!" The woman behind the counter greeted. Her large smile and inviting eyes contradicted her gloomy aesthetic of dull greys and sexy blacks and somehow, despite how she dressed, she gave off an air of someone who would help a grandmother walk a street or someone who would help a young girl find her kitten."Who must you be?"

"Hey Miriam," Kaito greeted coolly, pulling out his wallet as Gakupo laid down his clothes. "This is Gakupo. He's just staying over at my place for a bit, nothing overtly special."

Gakupo raised both eyebrows.

"Ah, must be hard," Miriam tutted. When all she received was a puzzled look, she clarified, "To keep your hands off him, I mean. This looker's staying over at your pigsty, yes?"

Kaito was clearly annoyed at the offhanded insult Miriam had made about his place, but shut his mouth when he sensed himself about to bout Miriam in his daily lecture about how his place wasn't that bad. "Shut up Miriam," he replaced bitterly. "...emo."

Miriam had undoubtedly heard and had reached over to slap Kaito in the face, subtly, sharply. "No discount for you then," she realised, looking smug ad Kaito mouthed a swear under his breath, rubbing his cheek. She briefly glanced over er Gakupo as she finally went to scan his clothes, deftly putting them in plastic bigs, not looking once at the scanner nor the rack of bags. "So," she began, averting her attention towards Gakupo. "Seeing anyone, handsome?"

No part of Gakupo's face had changed and he remained confused as hell. "I..." He trailed off, not knowing exactly what to say. He briefly glanced at Kaito, prompting a a slight nod his direction. "Yes, I am."

"Well, that's certainly a shame," Miriam mumbled, although her face didn't falter and her confidence remained like a rock welded to concrete. She bagged another pile of clothes and shoved two over the counter, continuing to scan. "So who's the lucky girl?"

Gakupo looked over at Kaito who only shrugged. "Just this girl back home." He made up, just avoiding Miriam's jabbing questions.

"Ooh," Miriam said. She was about to talk again before she realised that she'd probably asked one too many questions – and then drew the conversation to a close, bagging the last few items of clothing before coming to the final price

"Aaand that gives us to ¥8250, please," Miriam chirped brightly, handing over the last few bags.

"What? That much?" Kaito muttere, but fished his wallet out of his pocket.

"Come on, everything here is literally ¥330, it's good quality and it's fuc– really cheap," Miriam corrected as a youg school girl walked into the shop. "Anyway, why do you need so many clothes?"

"I only brought enough clothes for three days by accident," Gakupo explained, making Kaito raise an eyebrow. "I'll be staying here for roughly three months, so I need enough clothes."

"Woah." Miriam said, taking his explanation validly. "And your girl's alright with that?" She probed, as Kaito raked over the money.

"Mm."

"Huh. Chill girlfriend," she commented, then decided to discount Kaito ¥2200. She took the rest of the money and chucked it in the casher. "Tanks for stopping by. Catch up with me later, 'kay? Both of you."

Kaito merely rolled his eyes as he and Gakupo took the plastic bags, stepping out of the tiny store and into the crowded alley.

"Is she your friend?"

"Yeah, since highschool," Kaito answered with a vague grin, glancing up at Gakupo. He stretched his arms out and a lazy yawn promptly followed out of his mouth. "She was a lot different back then, though. Wore glasses and braces and had a nine o'clock curfew." He laughed.

Gakupo smiled dimly.

"Nice save by the way," Kaito said after a moment's silence, grabbing Gakupo's arm as he waded through the crowd. "Miriam would've given me hell if she'd thought we were dating. So thanks, Gaku."

Gakupo raised an eyebrow at the sudden nickname before his smile only widened, nodding. "Not at all."

The rest of the trip was comfortably silent, both letting the hustle and bustle and their footsteps converse to their ears instead. As Kaito managed to greet Gakupo and himself entrance after jamming the key around, they both gave out a heavy sigh, dropping the bags by the entrance.

"Oi," Kaito said, walking over to the kitchen and flinging open his cupboards haphazardly. "Is it necessary for you to eat?"

"Only for luxury purposes," Gakupo answered, placing himself behind the TV and turning it on. K-drama. "Never for health."

"Really..." Kaito scanned over his vastly empty cupboard – what the hell was he going to make with a stick of celery bound by a rubber band, a can of mushrooms – which he sure as hell was there since May last year, ew – and a single apple? He glanced over at Gakupo, who'd begun to engross himself in the drama.

"Hey, Gakupo," Kaito said. "I'm going to pop to the grocer's just for a bit. You okay with that?"

Gakupo nodded vacuously.

"Do you want anything?"

"Eggplants?" Gakupo suddenly asked, turning away from the TV and looking at Kaito with mild interest.

"Huh? Wha...uh, okay..." Kaito responded, blinking. He then nodded and pulled on his shoes, house keys in one hand, wallet in the other. "See ya, Gakupo." He said before he made his way out of the apartment. "Love you."

Only as the door shut did Kaito realise what he'd just said.

Gakupo took more interest than necessary. Raking his hair behind his ear, Gakupo stared at the spot Kaito was just moments ago, wondering if he had heard right. Since being activated, Gakupo couldn't decide whether Kaito was his boyfriend or not, although that did seem to seal the deal for him. Gakupo made a "huh" noise before shrugging mildly, turning himself back to the TV.

* * *

><p><em>elevator music.<em>

* * *

><p><strong>T<strong>he doorbell rung less that fifteen minutes later when Kaito had left. Reluctantly, Gakupo peeled himself away from his spot and walked over to the door to answer it, where two people who looked an awful lot like Kaito graced the doorstep. One, a stunning lady with interesting greying hair with a recognisable blue tint, ending in ringlets around her delicate shoulders, and the other, a tall man who bore Kaito's eyes and ears, with his hair neatly combed back and a tie and a suit to match.

"Is Kaito home?" the woman asked.

"He just went to go to the grocery store," Gakupo apologised, putting on his best smile. "May I ask who you are?"

The woman clearly looked surprised by Gakupo's politeness. "We're Kaito's parents," she introduced, linking her hands together by the stomach of her sundress. "We said we'd come and drop by today, silly boy must've forgotten..." She sighed softly. "And you?"

"Boyfriend," Gakupo answered without a second to spare. "Um, it's nice to meet you."

The father's interest had perked. "Kaito never told us he was gay," he said softly to the mother. He then turned to Gakupo, smiling indecipherably at him. "How long have you been dating him?"

"Three months," Gakupo answered with his smile still intact, hoping that'd be a reasonable answer to the unspoken question to why he was living somehow normally with Kaito.

Kaito's mother raised both eyebrows. She turned to the father again, and just audibly whispered, "I like him."

"Would you like to come in?" Gakupo asked on prompt, picking up at what the mother said and feeling his confidence boost.

"Oh, of course, thank you," the mother beamed and took off her jacket, which Gakupo instinctively took and hung on the coat rack behind him. She looked up at Gakupo with some sort of mystified curiosity, looking right in his eyes.

"Well, finally, Kaito picked a good one..." She muttered under her breath. "Thank you very much."

Gakupo kept his perfect smile intact as he followed the parents to the living room, taking a seat across them.

"I would've offered some coffee, but there's nothing in the cupboard," Gakupo said meekly. "Apologies."

"Oh, no, don't worry about it!" The mother assured. "We're completely fine. Thank you for the gesture."

As much as Gakupo would've liked to continue watching the soap, he now had company to entertain and it clearly would've been rude to watch on and ignore them — even more so now he seemed to cast a good impression on them.

But what, though? What could he say? Telling them their boy was lovely was too formal, and asking them about their day was too casual. So Gakupo could only sit in silence, put on a pretty smile and wait for someone to fill the quiet space — preferably not him, since his mind had drawn to a blank.

"So," the father finally began. "How long have you been living with Kaito?"

"I just moved in...er...this morning, actually," Gakupo answered, sparing a glance at the bag of clothes by the door. "I'm just testing the waters, so I'll only be staying for a week or two before I decide to live here properly."

"That's incredibly rational," the father answered. "I like your way of thinking."

"Thank you."

"And where are you sleeping?" The mother asked.

"I'm staying in the guest room for now. I respect Kaito's privacy to the fullest."

Oh god. This sounded too formal and almost corny.

Eh, they seemed to be taking it.

"You're very gentlemanly," the mother said. "Utterly charming. Oh, and sorry — I don't believe I know your name?"

"It's Gakupo," he answered. "Gakupo Kamui."

"Mm, you can call us aunty and uncle, Gakupo," she said. "Or Karolina and Itoh; whichever you prefer."

"Aunty and uncle, then."

More light chatter had ensued. None of them lasted very long and they had small conversations between breaks of silences, although Karoline could see the more apparent interest in Gakupo when they spoke about Kaito. Otherwise, the impression had been set very nicely upon Kaito's parents, and Gakupo had deemed himself a job well done.

Until Kaito stumbled in with an angry vocabulary, arms weighed down with grocery bags and a newly acquired tear in his jeans.

Karoline stood to her full height just in time for Kaito to look up. Quickly, he made his way to the living room and wrapped his arms briefly around his mother, quicker on his father before dropping his bags dramatically on the kitchen counter.

"You said you were coming at nine?" Kaito spluttered hurriedly, beginning to fill the cupboards at a rate. "Why did you come early?"

"Well, your father had finished your documents early and Ralphina Laurence is smoothly sailing without my help, so we thought 'why not come now'?" Karolina explained with a light smile. "I met Gakupo also–" she gestured to him fondly, "–he's a very lovely boy."

"Yeah, he's my—"

"Keep him, he's a very good boyfriend," she told, although there was a break-up-with-him-and-I'm-break-up-your-neck-off edge to her voice.

"Ah, yes," Kaito chuckled before it dawned on him.

What?

* * *

><p>I would've updated quicker, but I just realised how inconvenient it was for me to start this story right before I started highschool. Plus, my laptop broke, which is always fun, so I've resorted to phone. Sorry about that.<p>

Support is always appreciated, in forms of reviews, favourites, follows...especially appreciated if you just go and do all three if you haven't already. I'm very happy at the amount of attention that this story got, so please do keep that coming. Thank you!

~ chinat0wn


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